W HITEPA PER

API-led Connectivity
Take the next step in the evolution of SOA.
Contents

Executive Summary 03

The Transformation Gap 05

API-led Connectivity: The Evolution of SOA 07

A Three-Layered Architecture 10

Key Benefits of API-led Connectivity 12

API-led Operations in Action 14

Customer Story: Bayer Crop Science 14

Customer Story: Wells Fargo 15

Conclusion 16
 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
Executive Summary
IT team leaders are tasked with keeping up with customer and
employee expectations by utilizing the latest advancements in
technology. But with limited budgets, finite time to dedicate to
the process, and so many solutions out there, keeping up with
these expectations can be difficult.

Integration solutions have played a major role in allowing

organizations to digitally transform and ultimately create exceptional
customer experiences. The challenge for IT leaders is to figure out
which integration solutions will most efficiently create connectivity
to improve operations and exceed consumer expectations.

03
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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
At a high level, companies currently face four major technological
challenges:
T
 he dynamic digital landscape is in constant flux
C
 ustomers expect personalized and connected experiences
across platforms and devices
E
 mployees demand better digital experiences at work
D
 igitaland connectivity transitions and implementations
are often costly and slow

This whitepaper will cover these transformation challenges that

businesses encounter today. We will identify the best ways to structure
your digital architecture to drive efficiency, increase productivity,
and lower costs — all while remaining flexible and agile enough
to add new features and solutions quickly.

04
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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
The Transformation Gap
While the technological progress of hardware components has slowed
dramatically in recent years, businesses worldwide have been increasing
their digital transformation and connectivity spend year-over-year.

The projected digital transformation Gartner suggests that organizations

compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
is 16.4% — adding up to more than
$10 trillion from 2020 to 2025.
With all the money being poured
into this sector, the explosion in
services and increased complexity
is challenging to navigate.
should take a holistic approach to
digital and connectivity transformations.
However, they noted that more than
half of the companies surveyed were
uncertain about their transformation
readiness and progress.

Today, businesses must determine

05
how to bring data from disparate
and changing sources to multiple
audiences — including customers,
suppliers, and employees — securely,
efficiently, and at scale. Balancing
these factors means that your
organization’s strategy and approach
are key differentiators to success.

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The complexity of adding services ad hoc
leads companies to use short-term
approaches that value the success of an
individual project to the detriment of the
enterprise as a whole. This point-to-point
strategy creates a patchwork of solutions
that cover technology stacks already in
place, resulting in a brittle and expensive
way to maintain architecture.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
approaches emerged in the early 2000s.
They began to address these enterprise
infrastructure and connectivity problems
by breaking services out of the monolith
and reducing redundancy.
API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
However, enterprises often failed
to integrate SOA successfully due to
poor strategic planning; they tended
to rely on vendors or single teams
when a companywide approach
was necessary.
While traditional SOA is no longer a
suitable solution today, it laid the
groundwork for creating well-defined,
easily discoverable, and reusable services.
06
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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
API-led Connectivity:
The Evolution of SOA
An API-led connectivity builds on the central tenets of SOA by
re-imagining its implementation to meet today’s connectivity needs.

What is an API-led approach?

 efines methods for connecting and exposing your assets

D

 hifts how IT operates, promoting decentralized access to data

S

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and capabilities without compromising governance

 mpowers IT to use existing investments to drive transformational

E
change while maintaining visibility and control

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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
Taking full advantage of this approach of consumption and the system of record,
requires shifting the IT team mindset away so applications may use it interchangeably.
from project delivery to delivering assets
These problems lend themselves to a
as services. This enables lines of business
service-oriented approach where
and IT to self-serve, building their own
application logic is broken down into
connections, processes, and applications
individual functions that can be reused
— all while central IT governs access, SLAs,
across multiple channels, making the
and data quality.
system more agile.
The complexity of providing multiple
An API-led connectivity approach yields
stakeholders with customized views of the
an application network built from software,
same underlying data source increases
data, and devices that are able to be used
exponentially with the number of channels
quickly with minimal effort, which means
through which that data must be provided.
greater agility and speed.
It also reinforces the need for decoupled
and independent data between the point

08
Anatomy of API-led Connectivity

API-led connectivity is governed by three components:

1 Interface:
Presentation of data in a governed
and secured form

2 Orchestration:
Application of logic to that data, such
as transformation and enrichment

3 Connectivity:
Access to secure data from physical
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systems or external devices 1 2 3

Interface Orchestration Connectivity

Presentation of data Application of logic to that Access to secure data,
in a goverened data, such as transformation whether from physical systems
and secured form and enrichment. or external devices.

Figure 1: Anatomy of API-led connectivity

 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
The primary building blocks of the API-led connectivity
interface include APIs and microservices.

What is an API? APIs are designed to provide controlled consumption and

access to connectivity while playing a role in that connectivity’s e-governance,
security, and management.

They act as demarcation and abstraction contracts between data consumers

and providers — decoupling the two and allowing them to work independently
of one another (as long as they continue to be bound by the API contract).

What are microservices? At MuleSoft, we define microservices as an architectural

pattern for creating applications.

Reusable microservices also work well to break up and consolidate operations but
call for a higher level of governance for successful implementation than APIs.

The interface is an aggregation and
orchestration of many APIs — microservices
that perform specific functions and
provide access to non-central data built by
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either central IT or line of business IT.
Together, the interface and its
orchestration lead to connectivity.

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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
A Three-Layered Architecture

Large enterprises have complex, interwoven connectivity needs that

require multiple API-led connectivity building blocks. Therefore, a
framework for ordering and structuring these building blocks is essential.

Agility and flexibility are best achieved through a multi-tier architecture

containing three distinct layers:

1 System Layer: Underlying all IT systems and its target channels. In a

architectures are core systems of
record (e.g., ERP, key customer, billing
systems, and proprietary databases),
these systems are often not easily
accessible due to complexity. APIs
provide a means of hiding that
purchase order process, for example,
some logic is common across
products, geographies, and retail
channels that must be distilled into
a single service.

complexity from the user, and system
APIs facilitate access to underlying
systems of record and expose that
data while providing downstream
insulation from any interface changes
or rationalization of those systems.
These APIs will also change less
frequently and will be governed by
central IT, given the importance
of the underlying systems.
2 Process Layer: These are the
underlying business processes that
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3 Experience Layer: This is where data
is consumed across a broad set of
channels — where each channel
requires access to the same data but
in various forms. For instance, a retail
branch POS system, e-commerce site,
and mobile shopping application all
require access to the same customer
information fields, but each will
require that information in different
formats. Experience APIs reconfigure
data so it is easily consumed by its
intended audience from a common
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interact with and shape the data data source, rather than setting up
that should be strictly encapsulated fragile and separate point-to-point
independent of the data source integrations for each channel.
 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
Each API-led connectivity layer provides context regarding
function and ownership.

Layer Ownership Frequency of Changes

System Layer Central IT 6 –12 months

Central IT and
Process Layer 3 –6 months
line of business IT

4–8 weeks; more

Line of business IT and
Experience Layer frequently for more
application developers
mature companies

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ILLUST R AT IV E ARC HI T E CT U RE :

11
Mortgage lending transformation — the emergence of an application
network and a foundation for reuse.

Experience Customer Associate Reporting/Analytics Servicing/Support Payment Default

Experience (all Experience Experience Experience
APIs channels: e.g. mobile,
desktop, IVR, etc.)
Channels

Process Originate Read Get Retrieve Search Get Loan Get Loan Get Credit
Loan Borrower Borrower Loan Loan Account Status Report
APIs Loan History Account Documents Balance
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Processes Details

Credit Score Documents eSignatures Loans Borrower Borrower Data

System Web Service
APIs
Data Oracle MySQL IBM
DB DB DB2

Credit Bureau Document Loan Mortgage

Management Origination Servicing
System (LOS)

*Customer-facing channels are consolidated into a single customer experience API in this figure for simplicity.

*Customer-facing channels are consolidated into a single customer experience API in this figure for simplicity.
 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
Key Benefits of API-led Connectivity

IT leaders are constantly seeking ways to enable efficiency and

increase productivity across the business — and API-led connectivity
is a path to deliver on those imperatives.

Business Benefits
 I T as an enabler for the business:
By exposing data assets as services to
a broader audience, IT can become
an enabler that allows lines of business
team members to self-serve.

 Increased developer productivity

through reuse:
API-led connectivity is consistent with

12
a service-oriented approach where logic
is included in its constituent parts and
reused across different applications.
This prevents duplication of effort and
allows developers to build on each
other’s efforts.

 More predictable change:

IT leaders can better estimate and
ensure delivery against code changes
by modularizing integration logic and
ensuring a logical separation between
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modules. This architecture negates

the nightmare scenario of small
database field changes that have
significant downstream impacts and
avoids extensive regression testing.

IT Benefits
 Distributed and tailored approach:
An API-led connectivity approach
recognizes that no one-size-fits-all
architecture exists. Instead, it allows
connectivity to be addressed in
small pieces through the APIs
and microservices.
 Deeper operational visibility:
 Greater agility through a loose
coupling of systems:
Within an organization’s IT architecture,
different levels of governance are
appropriate. The so-called bimodal
integration or two-speed IT approach
makes this dichotomy explicit. On the
one hand, there is a need to carefully
manage and gate changes to core
systems of record (e.g., annual schema
changes to core ERP systems). On the
other, it is crucial to retain the flexibility
API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
to iterate quickly for user-facing edge
systems, such as web and mobile
applications where continuous
innovation and rapid time to market
are critical. Separate API tiers allow a
different level of governance and control
at each layer, making simultaneous
loose-tight coupling possible.
Approaching connectivity holistically
allows greater operational insight
beyond whether an API or a particular
interface is working. This approach
provides end-to-end insight from receipt
of the initial API request call, to the
fulfillment of that request based on
an underlying database query. At each
step, fine-grained analysis is possible,
which cannot be easily realized when
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considering connectivity piecemeal.
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 API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
API-led Operations in Action
Thousands of companies rely on MuleSoft’s innovative approach
to exceed customer expectations and improve employee performance
and daily operations. Let’s take a look at two examples of enterprise-sized
organizations that have benefited from implementing MuleSoft’s
API-led connectivity.

CUS TO M E R S TO RY

Bayer Crop Science

the company to integrate Salesforce with

Bayer Crop Science is the agricultural
and environmental branch of Bayer
Corporation. The company conducts
scientific research and innovates solutions
to help feed our planet, such as new seeds
that help farmers overcome challenges
such as pests, diseases, and drought.
The Salesforce instance at Bayer had
grown into a large, sprawling ecosystem
spanning multiple groups across the globe.
Data was held in silo systems that were
difficult to access, consequently slowing
down product development and other
projects. Due to the complexity, it was
14
existing legacy systems and gaining access
to data in formerly siloed systems.
MuleSoft provided the framework to
modernize Bayer’s integration platform
to accelerate speed to market, increase
scalability, lower ongoing maintenance
and support costs, and future-proof the
company’s integration architecture.
“Previously, it took our teams 5–6 weeks
to develop a product, and now it
takes just 2 weeks, so we are seeing
200% faster product development,
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difficult for Bayer to resolve faults in the
system, resulting in project delays that
negatively impacted the business.
Bayer created a single view of all customer
data via API-led connectivity replacing
the P2P integration pipeline, enabling
and speed to market has increased
by 5x.”
Arun Sankarapillal, Senior Director
Product Experience Lead —
Portfolio and Pricing, Bayer
Read the story

CUS TO M E R S TO RY
Wells Fargo
As one of the largest banks in the world,
Wells Fargo employs roughly 273,000
team members and serves over
70 million customers across 8,500
locations and 13,000 ATMs.
As part of its digital transformation
journey to deliver a unified customer
experience, they built Wells Fargo
Gateway, a Banking-as-a-Service
(BaaS) platform that provides key
services — such as account servicing,
payments, and foreign exchange —
through exposing APIs to Wells Fargo’s
partners and developers.
Through API-led connectivity, services
from all partners and applications
are seamlessly integrated into the
Wells Fargo experience.
API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
Wells Fargo’s application network is
the backbone to their digital platform,
enabling reuse of the same API across
multiple channels, allowing more rapid
project delivery — increasing the speed
of IT project delivery from months to
just weeks — and allowing the bank to be
more responsive to its customers’ needs.
“The FX API, which we are offering to our
partners, has been a game-changer
… they can seamlessly integrate their
applications or their systems with
our platform.”
 id Vyas, CTO — Capital Markets
S
and Investment Banking
15
Technology, Wells Fargo
Read the story
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Conclusion
As complexity increases, an API-led connectivity approach is the best solution to help
your teams easily build and rapidly scale application networks.
Key Takeaways:
 Build an application network by
adopting an API-led connectivity
approach that packages underlying
connectivity and orchestration
services as easily discoverable and
reusable API building blocks
 Structure these building blocks across
distinct systems, processes, and
experience layers to achieve greater
organizational agility and control
 Drive technology changes holistically
across people, processes, and systems
API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
MuleSoft: The API-led
Connectivity Platform
MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform™ is a single,
unified platform designed to deliver an
API-connectivity approach that enables
end-to-end connectivity across APIs, service
orchestration, and application integration.
It is the world’s leading integration
solution and is trusted by more than
1,600 enterprise customers across every
major industry.
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 x to 5x faster time to launch
 2
new initiatives
 onnected systems
 C
 nlocked data across the enterprise
 U
 0% reduction in integration costs
 3
  10% higher employee productivity
 0% higher productivity for app
 7
development teams
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Partnering with MuleSoft
MuleSoft also helps partners achieve their
goals with Catalyst™. Organizations that
partner with MuleSoft have access to
expertise guidance in change management,
organizational design, and IT development
best practices. Regardless of where your
organization is in their digital transformation
journey, we offer industry-leading consulting,
API-LED CONNECTIVIT Y
online tutorials, templates, and other
resources to help exceed your customers’
expectations. Whether for a single project
or a broader digital transformation initiative,
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and Catalyst
enable organizations to realize business
outcomes faster, and create exceptional
customer experiences.

Contact us | Begin your digital

transformation journey
Get started

17
Learn more | See what sets
MuleSoft apart from the rest
Meet Anypoint Platform

Watch | Webinar: Anypoint

Platform 101: API-led integration
basics with MuleSoft
View now
©2023 M U L E S O F T ­­— M U L E S O F T . C O M
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(NYSE: CRM), visit salesforce.com.

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